The real anniversary of the Easter Rising is on Sun 24 April and the celebrations/commemorations on Easter Monday (28 March) were very much premature.
One thing that surprised me (positively) was that Sinn Fein didn’t feature at all. The commemorations should not be and were not claimed by any political party, but it was an event for the people. At the beginning of the year it looked as if Sinn Fein would try to give themselves a big pat on the shoulder for what “they” had achieved in 1916, but despite the current Major being from Sinn Fein, the party kept a very low profile. Good!
With the REAL anniversary happening nearly a month after the big event, the question was how this “second” anniversary would be celebrated and the answer seems to be: NOT!! A little odd, that there is not at least some small scale official event, but we will get over it.
With surprise though, I found out that on Sunday 24 April a quite odd commemoration will take place: Dublin City Council and Athletics Ireland are hosting a “Dublin Remembers 1915 Run”. I am not even sure why I find this so odd, but reading through the promotional text on Dublin City’s website it just sounds strange when you read:
“With the centenary celebrations of 1916 in full swing, this is an excellent opportunity to put your running shoes on in remembrance.”
And the text continues explaining that the run will pass by “iconic sites … exactly 100 years ago to the day of the Easter Rising.” (Let’s not dwell on the incorrect sentence with the word “ago” not fitting in there at all.) Running a 5km run and passing by the locations where people shot each other 100 years ago does seem to me to be one of the oddest ways to commemorate.
Is any harm done by this “Dublin Remembers 1916 Run”? Not at all! …and I still find it a rather strange way to commemorate a rebellion 100 years ago.
[If you want to participate in this run, you have to register before 20 April and it will cost you EUR 11: www.athleticsireland.ie/news/dublin-remembers-1916-5k/
